Why I (Want to) Fly

LAX in the mid afternoon.

From the time I was a young lad, I have always wanted to be part of the flying few. I was fascinated by flying and space-going machines. I had several books on various flying machines and those who attempted to build them. Also, living in SoCal meant we were close to LAX. My parents would periodically take me there to watch planes taking off and landing—we even saw President HW Bush landing in AF1 once!

That interest of machines developed into an interest of actually flying and upon discovery of the now-defunct Space Shuttles, I wanted to be an astronaut and fly one of them too. When I was about 8 years of age, I recall my dad promising me flight lessons "when I was old enough" and the funds were available. Looking back now, I suppose I was "old enough" then, I just would have another eight years of having a right seat partner until I legally solo at age 16. However, the funding still wasn't there, so

Throughout my adolescent and teen years, my dream of flying lay dormant. I knew that family financials weren't exactly conducive to flight training, so I never even bothered to ask. Looking back, I suppose that I could've gotten some done, at least an intro flight. Also, plenty of scholarships are available which I could've applied for. I just never even looked.

Now that the Space Shuttles are no longer in service, that dream is now indefinitely deferred. However, I would still like to go to space. I also have a short list of planes I'd like to sit behind the controls of. A-10. A-330. Boeing 777. C-17. DC-3. F-15. P-51. Mooney Acclaim. PC-12. I like to think I'd enjoi piloting any one of those planes at some point.

But what I'm most interested in doing is flying missionary work. I'd love to buy a DC-3 and convert it to turbine engines to use as a missionary plane. (Why turbine conversion? I don't have to rely on avgas, which is quickly disappearing and is often prohibitively expensive in the places I'd be flying most.) Short of doing that, I'd like to work for an organization like Mission Aviation Fellowship, Flying Mission, or even Angel Flight. I love flying and helping people. Something that combines the two of them would be rather welcome.

And so, there we have it. That's why I want to learn to fly: to be a flying missionary. My work is definitely cut out for me since I still have less than 20 hours, haven't soloed, and have no complex/high performance time. I'm hoping that get those situations fixed over the next year, updates forthcoming. I just hope it can all get done sooner rather than later.

Happy New Year!

My wings are currently clipped.

Well, today marks the start of a new year. Since my last update, I've managed to accumulate exactly 1.6 more hours aloft by taking a friend with me on a 'discovery' flight for her birthday. With those 1.6 hours, I now have a total of around 15 hours logged, or theoretically 37% of the way to my license. I also spent some time in the plush seats as I flew commercial to go see my girlfriend at the end of July/beginning of August. I look forward to the day when I can bypass the gropefest completely and simply fly myself there.

To help bring that to pass, I intend to start flying again at some point this year. The main reason I stopped flying was a mismanagement of money on my part. Now that I've gotten that identified and somewhat straightened out, I can hopefully be able to return to the skies at a consistent pace and actually finish my training. My written exam is already taken and waiting in my room, but it expires this month. I'll have to retake it and get a physical to get everything going smoothly again.

I hope my skills are not too rusty so I don't have to spend much time money reviewing stuff I already know. Of course, since I likely will not be taking the lessons through Mt. Sac's College Aviation anymore, I expect any new flight instructor to want to spend a couple flights just seeing where my skill level is. Come to think of it, my CFI from Mt. Sac got hired to a regional anyway, so I'd still have to get a new instructor even if I was returning there. But after all those formalities, I hope it doesn't take much more than 3-4 more months total to finish up the certificate.

As usual, I'll be posting updates on the progress. Flying has always been a dream of mine ever since my parents used to take me to the hill south of LAX to watch plane traffic. I'd like to land at LAX for myself one day, so getting the necessary training done is a priority on my to-do list now. Happy new year and safe flying!

Photo by San Diego Air & Space Museum.

one year

entry from last time i flew

been a long time


well, it's been a year today since i last spent time aloft in a plane. i haven't even flown commercial since i last took a flight lesson. in the interim, several things have happened that have had quite an impact on flying time. first of all, i bought a new (to me) car. although the monthly payment isn't extraordinary, the $200 translates into 2 less hours of flight. i wasn't blindsided by the monthly payment, but it still is there. secondly, i then took a 6 week vacation. i drove all around the country, visiting many family members and friends, over 11000 total miles all added to the car at an average of around 24 mpg. the amount i spent on gas could've doubled my flight hours. i don't regret going, it's merely an observation.

realizations

however, since returning from vacation, car-related expenses have run quite a bit higher than expected. of course, spending money on a car is normal, spending money on flight is not. had i realized that concept a year ago, i'd probably own a plane now. i've actually spent more on the car in the past year than it would've cost to pay for a full pp-sel course at a flight school. as a result of my penny wise, pound foolish approach, i was forced to avail myself to a few daily deals for flights, but i still haven't even exercised my rights in any of them. i do intend to use them soon, but the real focus is getting re-positioned to fly again regularly.

flight plan

moving forward, a [new improved] plan is now in play: focus money toward flying. i would really like to be able to take my checkride before my written exam expires at the end of jan 2013, but not if flying isn't cost-effective. paying more to fly by flying now instead of waiting until some things are figured out is a recipe for disaster in the long run. paying another $150 to take the written could result in some of my cheapest flying yet if it means i've paid off other obligations. i also would like to spend some time in whirlybirds, which can easily cost twice the hourly rate of planes. that makes doing this the right way even more imperative. hopefully, i am able to get more updates from the air coming out soon and with pictures as well.

more time aloft

went flying again yesterday. steve decided maybe we should try some power-on stalls to get me used to stalling and recovering without having to worry about adding power, turning off carb heat, and decreasing flaps. so recovery from power-ons is a bit easier than power-offs in that regard. however, they are a bit scary. the real point of power-on stalls is to be able to identify and avoid them when they occur unexpectedly--which would usually be on takeoff. so nose is pitched quite high and full power is on. almost feels like a fighter (: after this profile is established, just hold it and wait for plane to slow down and stall. after stall, just push forward and recover. much easier in that regard than the power-offs.
however, we ended up unintentionally doing a couple half spins. a spin comes about from an uncoordinated stall, and is aggravated by using ailerons. directional control in a stall is accomplished using rudder. so naturally, i of course am used to keeping wings level with ailerons, would throw the ailerons over in an attempt to keep wings level. also, wasn't using enough rudder for awhile on entry either. so yea, we spun a couple times. not full spins, but definitely entered them. good thing we were flying around at 4500, so we were about 3500 agl.
it also didn't help yesterday that winds were kinda brisk, kept tossing the plane around at altitude. but they really became evident on turning from downwind to base once the plane was broadside. definitely required a lot more pulling back than normal. but base to final was not bad at all, lining up with the runway pretty accurately. the wind was again slightly broadside, tossing us around on the way down. so steve definitely talked me through the landing again, but it was all flown by me.
was supposed to have another flight today, but it got moved to tomorrow. i'm guessing a couple more power-ons, then power-offs. after that, i'm guessing ground reference maneuvers are the next order of business, but i can't say for sure. we'll see. but what i do know is that my radio is on point. and apparently atc can understand what i'm mumbling. haven't gotten a "say again, please" yet. anyway, bis morgen. auf wiedersehen!

stalled

sorry guys, i guess i slacked off a little and didn't update for a little while. so i figured i'd better change that. my last flight was almost two weeks ago, on cinco de mayo. was a pretty busy day up in the practice area, but still had a productive time up there. we did power off stalls. the time before that, we had done slow flight, so it was the natural progression. although i've spent a decent amount of time looking at aerodynamics and lift theory, i'll admit that i was still a little apprehensive at the prospect of "falling out the sky" before we began. nevertheless, we went up and steve demonstrated the technique then handed over the controls to me mid-stall and told me to recover. turned out to not be as scary as i had originally feared, although i am in no way dismissing the vigilance that one must have surrounding stalls, especially outside of straight and level. after recovery, we climbed back up to altitude and did a couple more iterations of power offs before heading back for the landing. tower cleared us for 26l this time, and we went in for an uneventful landing.

although cinco de mayo was the last time we got up, we did have another lesson scheduled last tuesday as well. i had specifically started scheduling my classes in the afternoons to avoid the june gloom that is all too common in the socal mornings this time of year, but to no avail. so on tuesday, weather was still below minimums to allow us to fly at 1500 and my cfi really hadn't the slightest idea of what we should do. finally decided to just go out and taxi around the airport, lol. i know how to taxi a plane, but actually taxiing isn't always as smooth as desired. driving cars probably has a big thing to do with it, but i'm defnitely getting better. so we just taxied around the airport and got a bit of gas. was also a nice time to practice talking to atc and getting a feel for ground ops with a couple planes in the circuit.

anyway, that's the news for this week. at least so far as has already been completed. i have a flight scheduled for thursday morning, but if this weather continues in this manner, i imagine another ground lesson is in the works. also had one scheduled for today, but we just cancelled it outright. we'll just have to wait and see.

hours are accumulating

sorry i didn't update sooner...had two more flights last week: thursday and friday mornings. thursday, we did some more work on steep turns. it was nice, i showed a definite improvement from tuesday's introduction to the maneuver. i had much better control of the roll in and out, of holding altitude, and of holding bank the entire way around the 360. it also meant i had much improved form in my regular four fundamentals. much better control at holding altitude and speed then making changes to either one without changing the other. also did my first landing. tower cleared us for landing 24r and so i was flying as we entered the pattern downwind, turned base, then final like we had in the past. but then instead of taking the controls like he'd done the previous times, he just kept talking me through it and then i realized we'd landed. the taxi back and tie down was uneventful.
friday's flight was all about slow flight. friday was also quite a beautiful day out, so to say we were joined by others in the sky is not an understatement. we actually got responses when talking on the radio out in the practice area. after doing another steep turn or two, we set out about slow flight. steve demonstrated the technique: pull back, decrease power, add flaps once in the arc. then it was my turn. as friday was quite a bit of a bumpy day, there wasn't the level of cooperation from the plane that might have been optimal. the goal was to maintain altitude while flying along at barely above stall speed. but this was frequently interrupted because we would hit an updraft or downdraft and 4gm just wouldn't climb. anyway, after tooling around about to stall all day long, we headed back. tower gave us 24l this time, and i flew the entire approach to landing under guidance again myself. however, did have a minor snafu at maybe 15 agl. asi was showing a speed that was very close to stall and it seemed (to me, anyway) like we were still a bit high to flare. so, exactly how does one counter a stall? glad you asked! stalls are best avoided by lowering the nose and/or adding power. of course, it looked perfectly fine to steve. he continued to round out to the flare, while i attempted to lower the nose then flare. so we ended up with a combination of both. we definitely got our cardio for the day with that little stunt. i dare say i was distracted by the p-51 mustang and b-24 liberator that were preparing to take off (p-51 was actually holding short pending our landing).
anyway, that's all i have. next flight is supposed to be tuesday morning. menu is calling for some more steep flight then probably power off stalls. (look ma, no lift!) i'll be back with a report.

hours are accumulating

sorry i didn't update sooner...had two more flights last week: thursday and friday mornings. thursday, we did some more work on steep turns. it was nice, i showed a definite improvement from tuesday's introduction to the maneuver. i had much better control of the roll in and out, of holding altitude, and of holding bank the entire way around the 360. it also meant i had much improved form in my regular four fundamentals. much better control at holding altitude and speed then making changes to either one without changing the other. also did my first landing. tower cleared us for landing 24r and so i was flying as we entered the pattern downwind, turned base, then final like we had in the past. but then instead of taking the controls like he'd done the previous times, he just kept talking me through it and then i realized we'd landed. the taxi back and tie down was uneventful.
friday's flight was all about slow flight. friday was also quite a beautiful day out, so to say we were joined by others in the sky is not an understatement. we actually got responses when talking on the radio out in the practice area. after doing another steep turn or two, we set out about slow flight. steve demonstrated the technique: pull back, decrease power, add flaps once in the arc. then it was my turn. as friday was quite a bit of a bumpy day, there wasn't the level of cooperation from the plane that might have been optimal. the goal was to maintain altitude while flying along at barely above stall speed. but this was frequently interrupted because we would hit an updraft or downdraft and 4gm just wouldn't climb.
anyway, after tooling around about to stall all day long, we headed back. tower gave us 24l this time, and i flew the entire approach to landing under guidance again myself. however, did have a minor snafu at maybe 15 agl. asi was showing a speed that was very close to stall and it seemed (to me, anyway) like we were still a bit high to flare. so, exactly how does one counter a stall? glad you asked! stalls are best avoided by lowering the nose and/or adding power. of course, it looked perfectly fine to steve. he continued to round out to the flare, while i attempted to lower the nose then flare. so we ended up with a combination of both. we definitely got our cardio for the day with that little stunt. i blame it all on the p-51 mustang that was holding short waiting for us to land.